1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer, copying machine or the like, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus of the above-noted type for rental use having a security mechanism against theft or any unauthorized or overdue use of the apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the case of a copying machine, it is a common practice for a user to rent the machine from a rental firm.
In such case, the rental firm needs to constantly keep track of the residence of the user and also the installation site of the rented copy machine. In actual situations; however, there are many occasions where the rental firm loses track of the installation site of the machine together with the user's residence for various reasons or where the rented machine is unduely resold to another user.
On the other hand, for the electrophotographic image forming apparatus (e.g. a copying machine) of recent make except for small-sized special ones, occasional maintenance operations by a service person are almost requisite for maintaining their copy image quality at a certain level over an extended use.
Therefore, a service person visits the user at appropriate intervals to carry out the maintenance operations on the machine.
The prior art has not yet provided any technical solution for effectively preventing such unnotified or unauthorized transfer of the rented machine. This lack of effective security measure necessarily causes the rental firm to be precautious in judging the customer and causes also some hesitence in renting a machine on the part of the customer who anticipates troublesome procedures required for renting the machine.
In view of the above-described state of the art, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an electrophotographic image forming apparatus which may be readily placed under constant record or supervison of, e.g. a rental firm through a service person who is to regularly visit the user to carry out a maintenance operation on the apparatus.